What Can You Post on Facebook

Today, we’re actually going to talk about … I hate to use this word because people are like, “woohoo,” but the algorithm. We’re gonna just talk a little bit about exactly what you can post on Facebook and when you should post on Facebook, and why you should have some sort of little strategy.

There are easy ways to do it, but the big reason that I want to make sure that you are aware of and know what to do is because, inside my members group, I was reading through the different questions. I’m traveling and before I got on the plane, I wanted to make sure that I answered several questions this morning.

Let me share this real quick. To all of you … get this on.

Here’s the thing, one of my members was essentially asking like what gives, why does it seem like all of a sudden Facebook is not pushing out certain kinds of posts, like viral posts? 

Viral posts are posts that are really popular on Facebook already. Why does it seem like Facebook’s not pushing those out right now, and now all of a sudden I’m getting more reach on my local posts?

I’ve had people ask the opposite. Why am I not getting reach on things that people are liking, that people are clicking? It’s local stuff, people are clicking it, but Facebook is not giving me any push, any reach on that. Why?

We’re gonna talk a few things about this.

Don’t Chase the Algorithm

There’s two things. Number one, it’s really, really, really hard to chase the algorithm. In fact, it’s impossible to chase the algorithm.

Here’s the thing. There will always be anomalies. You’re always gonna have things that just don’t seem to make any sense based on what had been happening on your page, right? There will always be anomalies and Facebook will always have random “what the heck” times. “What the heck” moments. It’s crazy posts. You’re just like, “What’s going on?”

Over the years I’ve seen the algorithm shift all over the place from heavily pushing text-only posts out to heavily pushing photo-only posts out, to heavily pushing video posts out to whatever. They just go back and forth.

What I watch and what I see are agents constantly trying to chase that algorithm. You’ll go to a conference and they’ll say, “Oh, it’s all about memes now. It’s all about memes now.” You start pushing out these memes and it works for a week or two. Then all of a sudden, boom, your page goes down again. You’re like, “What the heck? I can’t figure this out. What’s going on?”

There has always been a disconnect between what they heavily push out and what page fans actually engage with. There’s always been a disconnect with that. Which is surprising because why would they push something out that people are not interested in?

It’s been really interesting to watch. I’ve said this before, that I have content posts on my page. Things like blog articles, how-tos, etc., that you, as my page fans, really like. I know you like them because you click on them. You click through to them.

If it’s a blog, you’ll click through to go read it. If it’s a video, you’ll click through to watch it. I know that. The analytics show me what you actually like, right? Facebook just doesn’t push those out nearly as much as photo quotes or viral posts.

Now, the exception of that is a live video. They will push those out. They’ll push those out more than other posts because here’s why.  

Even though those valuable posts that people are liking, that your people are really liking, even though they’re getting more clicks and more people actually looking at the posts, not just reach, but actually looking at the posts, even though they consistently get more clicks than the ones that they do push out, they’re not gonna push them out because most of them lead people off Facebook. That’s the first thing. Number one.

Does that mean you should stop putting them on there? No. Let’s keep going.

Why Doesn’t Facebook Push Out Posts?

Now the question can be, “Why don’t they push them out”, and the answer is pretty obvious. They lead people off of Facebook. I gave you that answer.

Then the next question is, “Do I give Facebook more of what Facebook wants?” Yes and no. Here’s the thing. You always want to have a nice, healthy balance of about 6 posts a day spread out over a full 24-hour period, alright? A nice healthy balance of six posts a day.

What does healthy balance mean? A balance between what Facebook is currently pushing out. That’s where you have to watch your analytics on your page.

Analytics can be a scary word, but that’s why you just kind of have to watch the insights on your page to see what’s being pushed out over the last 7 to 10 days and make sure to give them more like that. 

But you need to have a balance between what they’re currently pushing out, what your page fans like and you know that because not just the reach, but what they respond to, what they engage with, not, “Oh, I see a comment over here”, but literally looking at the analytics on your page and what Facebook has previously pushed out.

You need a balance between what they’re currently pushing out, a balance between what your page fans like, and a balance between what they previously pushed out.

Alright, let me go deeper on this, you never want to be so heavy on the side of what they are currently pushing out that you pull back from what they used to push out. I’ll get more detailed on this. I’m hoping this makes sense, but I’m gonna get more detailed on this.

Watch Your Insights and Analytics

The best solution to this is to lightly watch your insights and analytics. Make sure you have a full balance. You need to have a balance of types of content on your page. Types of content, that would be photo only, text only, link posts, recorded video posts, live video posts.

That is your basic balance plus shares. Things that you’ve shared, so viral posts from other people, other resources you’ve shared, et cetera. You need to have a nice healthy balance.

That’s like six different types of posts.

Now, a lot of you are thinking, “Well what should I be posting”. I’m not actually gonna talk too much in detail about the what at this point, but you need to post a balance of stuff that’s local. You need to have local stuff that’s contextual, that’s relevant to your page. You need to have stuff that’s already on Facebook, that’s the share stuff.

You need to have stuff that’s already on Facebook. Ideally, if you can get some of that from your local that’s great, but you’re gonna have to go out and get your own photos. I mean you can’t outsource it. You can outsource someone taking the photos, you can even outsource someone scheduling the photos for you, but you need to be the voice that’s engaging with those photos.

Here’s what I mean by that. I mean that you need to share what your opinion, your thought, your feelings are in your voice.

Don’t try to do this in a journalistic AP method. If you see something that’s really cool, like where I am  here in Toronto right now and, doggone it, I forgot to get a picture of it.

I was totally gonna share this photo of Graffiti Alley because I was right next to Graffiti Alley for two days, and it’s really cool. There’s actually a building and right along the whole building they have all this graffiti and it’s really pretty, it’s really cool.

Inside the building it’s kind of like an art studio. They have people that come out and they actually do Graffiti Alley. I was gonna share that. No, it’s not local to my area and, no, it’s not local to all of you, but it’s something cool, something interesting that I can quickly take a picture of it. That’s lovely.

I meant to, but I got so involved in my mastermind conference, that I forgot. That’s the thing, it’s you, so if someone else were to come and put that on there and just posted it on my page, like if I sent it to a VA they would have no way to communicate in my voice about how amazing it was.

That text, you need to be in that.

You Must be Doing Videos

Then there are videos, you need to be doing the videos. The thing with Facebook, the power is when you’re building a relationship with other people, just like I do on my page.  

Yeah, sure, I’m just helping you, but the more you learn from me and the more you implement and the more results you have, the more you’re like, “Oh, she knows what she’s talking about. Oh, I’m gonna listen to her. Oh, she can help me.” That’s the same thing you need to do with your clients. That’s the stuff that sometimes Facebook doesn’t wanna push out. They don’t wanna push out the blog articles because it leads people off of Facebook.

Let me get back to this, but that does not mean you stop posting that stuff. That means you have to have a nice balance of what they’re currently pushing out, what your page fans like, and what they used to push out.

Do not get caught up in the, “Oh my goodness, only live video is being pushed out right now, so all I can do is live video, I need to stop everything else.” Don’t do that. Don’t also look at one week or two weeks of history in your insights and at your single posts and go, “Oh, is the algorithm changing?” It may not be.

It’s always changing, but it may not be actually shifting like you think. It may simply be that your page has reached a different level of the algorithm. It may simply be that it’s always been there, but you’ve been putting enough stuff out there that now Facebook is shifting it.

Keep a Balance of Posts

There’s a lot of things you cannot look at the last week or two of your history and go, “Oh, I need to switch and do this.” No, you need to always have a balance.

Since the beginning of time, or the last four years that I’ve been teaching you through Leads and Leverage, I have always said you have to have a balance of types of posts on your page, always.

That is what gets you through shifting algorithms because what happens today is not gonna be the same thing that happens in two weeks from now. Not at all.

You must have local information, local content, so that the people that you’re connected with have a reason to like you locally. They wanna know that you’re involved in your community. They wanna know this stuff. You need to make sure that you keep that balance. 

I know some of your may be high C’s on the disc scale and you’re all about the numbers and you’re all about the analytics and you wanna drive everything by that. Unfortunately, you really can’t do that on Facebook.

There are some things you can, but when it comes to content you can’t because you can’t look at the short term and you also can’t even look over the long, like a year and go, “Oh, my reach is going down”, and assume that Facebook’s taking away reach from pages.

Well, that’s true and that’s not true because there are pages through every single big algorithm shift that have actually done better, they’ve been pushed out more. Why is that? Number one, they understand that it’s a balance of types of content and, number two, they understand that it’s a balance between what Facebook’s currently pushing out, what their page fans like, and what they used to push out.

You have to keep that in mind. Also, the pages that are getting more reach have better relationships, engagement, with their page fans. That is where us, as REALTORS, we’re like we just want the lead, we just wanna get down to business. That is where we’re missing out as agents.

Your Page is a Relationship Vehicle

We have to, have, to, have to build our page as a relationship vehicle. This is a relationship vehicle, this page is. When we try to outsource this to just throw content up on our page doesn’t work so much.

Inside Leads and Leverage, I can provide you content, absolutely, and you have to look and see through that content. You have to look and see what Facebook is liking or what your page is liking. It may even be that Facebook doesn’t really like it that much and your page doesn’t like it that much, but it’s a good filler content, so that you have six full pieces of content every single day on your page.

There’s just a lot of things to the algorithm that you can’t actually just look at and analyze and then react to.

You cannot do that.

You have to have a nice balance and then be prepared temporarily to keep your balance while something else is being pushed out then throw a couple more of those in to help with that push, to help with that reach, so a lot of things like right now it’s really, really good to create your own content. This is where you’re shining right now.

Create Your Own Content

This is where Facebook has flat out said we wanna see more people creating their own content. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean you shouldn’t share viral content? Does it mean you shouldn’t share stuff that’s already on Facebook?

Well, no. It doesn’t mean that, although sometimes people are gonna say, “Oh, it didn’t push out that viral post for me, so that must be what’s happening, I shouldn’t do any viral posts.”

No, that’s not what it means.

It simply means get your butt out there and start creating some of your own content and add it to what you’re doing. Integrate it to what you’re doing. You’re gonna have to get out there. There’s just no option to not create your own content. 

It’s really easy. Hire a high schooler to go out and take 200 pictures of your area for you and use those pictures. That’s like 200 days of content right there if you put a picture a day up.

Find resources that are valuable to your potential clients, that are valuable like really valuable, not like, “Hey, hire a REALTOR” or “Hey, you need a home inspection”, give them a real value, explain to them the value of a home inspection.

Explain to them why they should spend $400 or $600 or however much a home inspection is in your market. Explain to them really here’s why, here’s the good, here’s the bad, here’s the chance you’re taking, here’s the security you’re getting, etc.

Start Doing More Videos

Explain it to them. Do a video. Get over your fear of being on video. This is a big one. You need to be doing video. Video is like where Facebook’s going and they’re pushing out other stuff and they’re doing great, but if you’re not doing some video you gotta do some video.

No, I’m not talking about hiring a real estate vendor to create this fancy schmancy video for you. People don’t want fancy schmancy. They want you. They wanna know you’re a real person. They wanna know that you have a real life. They wanna know that something that they can relate to you about.

They want you to be a little bit raw sometimes. They want that, they want real. They don’t want you to be polished because they feel like they’re gonna be sold to. It’s flat out that’s how it is. That’s what’s going out.

Also, I see people, it’s really funny, I was seeing people recommend always do your video from your phone, when you’re doing your videos from your phone always do them in horizontal format.

You don’t want to always do that because right now Facebook’s pushing out videos that are like the one you see posted on this page.

I was at my mastermind and it’s really funny because there are some really big experts in my mastermind and one of the experts happens to be Facebook ads expert and he’s a Facebook expert. He’s like, “You actually wanna be doing your videos in vertical because that’s what Facebook is pushing out right now.”

I don’t do them all like the one you see in this post. I do a lot through a third-party thing like Zoom and stuff, but when I can I do these this video will get pushed out more than any other one that’s similar, so lots of stuff.

Let me know if you have any questions about content and when you should post … the when you should post, you need to post a balance like I said a balance of what Facebook is currently pushing out a balance of what you’re page fans like and a balance of what Facebook used to push out. That’s that balance. You also need to post a balance of types.

What Do You Post?

You need text only, you need photo only, you need recorded video, you need live video, shares, links, that’s where you drive people to a blog post. You have two balances going on, so you need that going on there. Then your when to post, you should post something every four hours.

Yes, even at 2:00 in the morning, in the middle of the night. Every four hours you should have something coming out onto your page. Also, do not delete underperforming posts. Don’t do it because sometimes they come back later. Just don’t do it, you don’t wanna do that. Plus, you still got some push out from it, so you don’t wanna do that.

One of my members asked, “How do you send followers to your website, in comments?” Yeah, your posts on your page generally should not … first of all, the only post type on your page that should send somebody to your website is if it’s a link post, like for example, you’re posting a blog post.

Remember, if you want that blog post to be successful out on Facebook you can’t just say, “Hey, I’m sharing a blog post”, you need to physically share them why they should read this blog post or what are they struggling with that this blog post can answer. That’s number one. That’s how you do it. That’s the link post for that, but that’s only one of the five or six types of posts that you should be posting out.

Build an Audience

The goal on Facebook is to build an audience. Then you’ll leverage that audience through ads and other means to drive them to actual opt-ins, so we’re focusing on building an audience in Facebook a lot of times what we end up focusing on is just driving them to your website in hopes that they’ll register or in hopes that they’ll opt in, or in hopes that they’ll use your services.

That’s just the kinda post you’ll push out, those are the kinds of posts that’ll tank on Facebook. You have to make sure … for example, I have a lot of trainings on my website and every time I post a training, I would say the four things you need to know about hacking the algorithm on Facebook. I’m making up a name, but I’ll say that and then I’ll point people to the blog post on my website.

Here’s the thing, you guys love that stuff. You love it. I know it because I see the click throughs, right? Facebook doesn’t because it takes people off Facebook. You need to make sure that … so, they’re not gonna push that out a lot that when you’re doing this like one out of eight of your posts take people off Facebook. Like one out of six to eight.

You don’t wanna keep driving people off Facebook, so that’s why you would use ads. Even then Facebook doesn’t necessarily love you driving people off Facebook, they don’t. If you have a good page that people are engaging with, Facebook’s pushing out reach on, they will literally push out ads that drive people to your website more than if that’s all you were doing and people weren’t engaged with your content. I hope that makes sense.

Reply To Comments

Should we be replying to all comments or reacting to them for best engagement? Absolutely. You always, always, always reply to comments. There are weird comments that you’ll get. You’ll get things like people just tagging other people in comments on your page.

With those, I’ll say thanks for sharing this, etc., but you always want to reply to comments because it increases your total comments, which helps Facebook push it out.

Not always, but it helps with that. Then obviously you want to be a real human in there conversing with them. Reply as your page and engage with them.

Post Content Facebook Likes

It’s just we can’t get too stuck in the weeds looking at the analytics. We just have to put a balance of both, like I said, what Facebook is currently pushing out, what our page fans like, and what they used to push out, and types.

We need the content that Facebook likes and used to like and we need different types because we never know when the algorithm’s gonna shift, which by the way it’s shifting all the time. They’re always tweaking it, it’s always changing, people are always trying to take advantage of the algorithm.

You will never ever get ahead of the algorithm ever. If you do fight to get ahead of the algorithm and you win for two weeks, three weeks, two months, three months, you’re gonna lose the next time they make a bigger shift, so you need to have a balance. They want to see a balance. They wanna see you creating things. They wanna see you sharing creative things.

What I mean by don’t just share crap to share crap, like don’t just put stuff on your page to fill it up, put stuff that’s important, that’s relevant, that people like.

Photos of your area is huge. You doing live streams is huge. Those will always do better reach wise than anything else because it’s created content that’s being pushed onto Facebook. It’s not anywhere else or it’s not shared or anything like that. Then sharing other people’s viral posts. Those are big, that’s big too.